Significance of sexual somatic dimorphism as the indicator of secular processes through the youthful period of ontogenesis

Abstract

Introduction. Time dynamics of sex somatic dimorphism through the youth period is discussed as the marker of secular trends.

Material and methods. The study embraces historic period from 1920^s till now. The main source of data – books on physical development of children and adolescents from cities and rural regions of Russia and the USSR. One-year age groups of 17-year-old young people are under discussion. The quantitative estimation of sex somatic dimorphism value was held using Kullback divergence, an analogue of Makhalanobis distance. The estimation of the vector and level of associations of sex dimorphism of anthropometric traits and secular factor was held using correlation analysis. The analysis of local patterns of secular sex dimorphism dynamics of separate dimensions was held using samples of Moscow youth, as well as Novosibirsk, Leningrad and Ekaterinburg youth through several decades.

Results. Meta-analysis based on the total data base fix significant secular increase of sex dimorphism of weight. The local Moscow sample shows the increase of sex dimorphism of height through the historic interval 1920^s–1970^s, and further stabilization up to 2018 at the level of 2 standard deviations. Ekaterinburg sample shows a decrease of height-weight sex dimorphism through the historic interval 1971–2019. Novosibirsk sample shows an increase of height-weight sex dimorphism through the time interval 1958–1989, the most intensive dynamics takes place in the 1970^s.

Discussion. Sex somatic dimorphism through the youth period is a valid marker of secular somatic dynamics and has local specificity. Summarizing of local trends may smooth this specificity, which is fixed in meta-analysis. Sex dimorphism of weight increase in time apart with the increase of the level of anthropogenic stress and global obesity epidemic, which reflects the evolutionary-based sexual difference sensitivity of adipose tissue to the influence of «obesogenic» factors of environment. Comparison of the secular dynamics of the levels of sex dimorphism through the range of consequent periods of ascending ontogeny witness, that significant markers of secular trends and quality of environment as a whole are sex dimorphism values in the periods of the most revolutionary, thus most ecosensitive, morpho-functional processes in the organism – infant and adolescent.

Conclusion. The significance of the sex somatic dimorphism as the criterion of secular dynamics for the 17-year-old young people is confirmed. Local differences in the ecological niche of the population, among them the degree of urbanization and the historic period of study, contribute to the intensity and vector of the secular sex dimorphism dynamics. Secular macrosomization of one sex compared to the other is not the exclusive prerogative of the male sex. Quantitative sex dimorphism level is the informative instrument of population monitoring of growth processes and the indicator of the quality of the ecological niche of the population.

Acknowledgements. The study was conducted under the state assignment of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

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